Sunday, July 3, 2011

Whenever you walk in to manufacturing or process control centers, you see the giant overhead displays and monitors with graphics on them used to monitor systems.

These graphics were drawn by engineers using very expensive tools that then connect those graphics to data historians and process control systems. It was my desire to have this kind of interface for a home, small business, or hobbyist that first inspired me to develop Nimbits.

You can create a Process Diagram in Nimbits in SVG format to make a visual representation of your systems and display changing point values, color changing alerts and link to other diagrams and web pages.

I use InkScape to draw my diagrams. It is a free and open source project that runs on Windows and Linux. You can install it on Ubuntu right from the repository, or download it on windows, macs and Linux systems from http://inkscape.org/. Nimbits can display most SVG Diagrams, and the official doc for adding live point data to them is available here on the Nimbits Wiki.

I like to use my aquarium as an example for Nimbits, even though it can do much more than monitor fish. First, it's a simple, closed system with a lot of moving parts. Secondly, i'd like to see if I can make my fish tank a tax deduction.

Since Nimbits diagrams can be made public, so anyone can see them. Feel free to take a look at my Fish Tanks current status right now here: Link to My Aquarium's Process Control Diagram. You should see something like this (if your using IE, you may need to install Chrome Frame):

This graphic demonstrates the following features:

Try clicking on the F Temp to see a live chart of current values.

Check out the Temp C value. This is the result of a real time calculation that converts my F reading to C.